7-day plan: Obedience
Listening to God and doing what he says: what he asks, why, and the two ways.
One passage a day, with a question to think it over. Your progress stays on this device, no account needed.
Day 1 · Listening and obeying
Samuel to Saul: listening to God is better than sacrifice
Samuel said, “Does YHWH have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in listening to the voice of YHWH? Look, to listen is better than sacrifice, to pay attention than the fat of rams. For rebellion is the sin of divination, and stubbornness is wickedness and teraphim. Because you have despised the word of YHWH, he has despised you from being king.”
1 Samuel 15:22–23 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does this passage say about what God is like?
Day 2 · What God asks
Moses sums up what God asks: fear him, walk in his ways and love him
And now, Israel, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of YHWH and his statutes that I am commanding you today, for your good?
Deuteronomy 10:12–13 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Which word or phrase stays with you, and why?
Day 3 · Out of love, not fear
Jesus: if you love me, you will keep my commandments
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 14:15 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid” (v. 27). What troubles you today, and how could you place it in his hands?
Day 4 · Two ways
Moses sets life and good, death and evil before them: choose life
See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his rules, so that you will live and multiply, and YHWH your Elohim will bless you in the land that you are entering there to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and are drawn away and bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you will not prolong your days on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter there to possess it. I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, loving YHWH your Elohim, listening to his voice, and clinging to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live on the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 30:15–20 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does it invite you to do today, even something small?
Day 5 · Listening and obeying
The people answer, “All the words that YHWH has spoken we will do”
Moses came and told the people all the words of YHWH and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that YHWH has spoken we will do.” Moses wrote all the words of YHWH. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve standing stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as sacrifices of peace to YHWH. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that YHWH has spoken we will do, and we will listen.” Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that YHWH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Exodus 24:3–8 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Who could you share this with this week?
Day 6 · What God asks
Micah asks if God wants thousands of rams; he seeks justice, loyal love and humility
With what shall I come before YHWH, and bow myself before the Elohim on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? He has announced to you, human being, what is good; and what does YHWH seek from you but to do justice, and to love loyal love, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?
Micah 6:6–8 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What would you like to say to God after reading it?
Day 7 · Out of love, not fear
Knowing God shows in keeping his word and walking as Jesus walked
And by this we know that we have come to know him: if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God has been brought to completion. By this we know that we are in him: Whoever says he remains in him ought himself to walk just as he walked.
1 John 2:3–6 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
John warns about loving the world (v. 15-17). What today competes for your attention against what really matters?